Versus on the other hand looks like a wank-fest for bishonen fangirls.

I couldn't agree more. Ever since the games were announced, it's seemed to me that there always been more excitement about Versus than FFXIII. And all I can think is "Man, there must be even more FF fangirls than I thought..."

However, there was one thing that really appealed to me about the FFvXIII shots/videos, but I couldn't put my finger on it until this morning. What I realized is that it is one of the only contemporary/near future settings that depicts both urban and "rural" atmospheres in a acceptable manner. FF8 was unique in that it was one of the only places in which the "world" itself felt modern, with roads, trains and global infrastructure. Most sci-fi either take place in space (Xenosaga), have isolated high-tech sites in backwater worlds (Star Ocean, Xenogears), or simply transition from sci-fi to pure fantasy outside of urban dwellings. What I saw in FFvXIII were long stretches of freeways with cars driving along them, along the coast... sorta like hwy 1 in California. It struck me like a ton of bricks that RPGs never have global infrastructure, with the single exception of FF8. Maybe that's one of the main reasons I think so highly of that game.

However, what I saw looked TOO MUCH like the FF7 spinoffs. The guys in black looked just like the Turks, even including a Rude'y-dude with bald head. I have yet to play the FF7 spinoffs, and honestly, the Turks were one of my favorite concepts from that game (there's a surprisingly small amount of RPGs with evil CIA/MIB type organizations) but it seemed like FFvXIII was pandaring to the FF7 throwback crowd, which I didn't appreciate.

Despite earlier hoo-haa'ing about the game's look, I'm probably going to reserve judgement on the main title until later. Versus still looks like neo-bishie boyband garbage, but the central title may yet impress me.

As to global infrastructure, it depends on the game I suppose. One could at least argue FFTactics had something resembling this, as did Phantasy Star II and Final Fantasy X. Policenauts and Snatcher did, though they were largely conveyed from a first-person point of view, and so did games like The Syndicate (though I can't recall if we'd consider that an RPG, I just remember enjoying it).

Meh, Final Fantasy X didn't have infrastructure in any way close to the way FF8 did, or in any modern sense. Most people were still travelling by foot or by caravan and the communities were largely tribal or fudel, and information was past by word of mouth or rumor. FF8 has mass transit, an obvious middle class, media, presidents / dictators (as apposed to monarchies / theocracies), and long-range radio/television that isn't magical. Truely a 20th-century styled setting both in and outside of major cities. I think the thing that really separates it is the spread of information in a very modern sense.

EGM: What can you tell us about the heroine of FFXIII?Motomu Toriyama: We can't tell you all the details, unfortunately. Looking at the history of the FF series, there were already female main characters, like in FFVI, FFX, and FFX-2. This time, one of the characteristics of this heroine is that she's not that feminine. I tried to make her someone very strong, independent. When I asked Mr. Nomura to design this character, I requested someone like a female version of Cloud from FFVII.

Darn, that's disappointing, I found cloud to be very bland. But that was probably just because that they weren't very successful at writing him as an interesting character the way they were able to with FF6 characters, Squall, or Zidane. It would have been possible to create a character like Cloud that was very appealing and interesting. But maybe this is just wishfull thinking.